Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 21, 1942)

Page scan 0000 from Canadian Film Weekly

Record Details:

Title:
Canadian Film Weekly
Date:
Jan 21, 1942
Volume:
Canadian Film Weekly (Jan 21, 1942)
Leaf #:
0000
Language:
English
Subjects:
Motion Pictures, Film Industry Trade Magazine",Canad
Collection:
Global Cinema, Canada, and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Canadian Picture Pioneers, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Canadian Film Weekly

  • Editor: Hye Bossin (1942-64)
  • Renamed Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly (1965-69, editor: Stan Helleur)
  • Renamed Candian Film Weekly(1970, editor: Ed Hocura)

Canadian Film Weekly (1942-70) was edited by Hye Bossin and published by Film Publications of Canada, Ltd., wholly owned by leading exhibitor, Nat Taylor. In the late 1930s, Taylor was head of the Independent Theatre Association and his Toronto-based chain, Twinex-Century (Twentieth Century), was the largest independent circuit in the country. In 1941, however, he negotiated for chain affiliation with upstart Canadian Odeon before leveraging a better deal and greater booking control with nationally-dominant Famous Players Canada, Ltd. No longer independent, he took ownership of the Independent Theatre Association’s semi-monthly magazine, The Canadian Motion Picture Exhibitor (1940-41), installed Hye Bossin as editor, and laid plans to relaunch in January 1942 under a new name, Canadian Film Weekly. This enduring key publication was no longer solely focused on independent exhibitors but instead covered the entire industry on a national scale–exhibition, distribution and production–with some attention given to studio news from New York and Hollywood.

Bossin was a vibrant writer with a canny way with words, admired in the industry in the United States as well as Canada. He was one of a large family who lived above their father’s secondhand shop in the Jewish “ward” downtown in Toronto. His older brother was a bookie with ties to the underground; his younger brother was a famous journalist, protégé of Walter Winchell, and Hollywood screenwriter. In contrast, Hye spent nearly two decades learning the publishing trade in a printers’ shop before trying a stint as a Hollywood publicist, then writing a column for the Toronto Star Weekly before taking Taylor’s offer to edit the Film Weekly. Bossin was central to the creation of the Canadian Film Archive, the Canadian Film Awards, and he wrote some of the first histories of early cinema in Canada, published in the first volumes of the annual Canadian Film Weekly Year Book (1951-70).

In 1957, the Film Weekly had incorporated the rival Canadian Moving Picture Digest (1917-57), and began dating its start to that paper’s earlier start as the Canadian Universal Bulletin (1915-18). Subsequent variants of the Canadian Film Weekly and its yearbooks always claimed their roots all the way back to 1915 and the origins of the film industry trade press in Canada. After Bossin died in 1964, the Weekly’s new editor, Stan Helleur, renamed the magazine Canadian Film & TV Bi-Weekly, scaling back the pace of publishing but adding a purview for television and broadcasting. The annual was renamed similarly, its subtitle amended to “Year Book of the Canadian Entertainment Industry.” An attempted renewal to weekly format in 1970, edited by Ed Hocura, was short-lived and Nat Taylor decided instead to relaunch under an entirely new title, Canadian Film Digest (1971-77) and Canadian Film Digest Yearbook (1971-86).

– Paul Moore, March 2024

Further Reading

  • Bossin, Hye. “Canada and the Film: The Story of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry.” In Canadian Film Weekly Year Book of the Canadian Motion Picture Industry, 21-41. Toronto: Film Publications of Canada, 1951.
  • Moore, Paul. “Chronicling a National History: Hye Bossin’s Canadian Film Weekly and Year Book.” In Eric Hoyt and Kelley Conway, eds., Global Movie Magazines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2024.

Date Added:
August 08, 2024
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& “tions to the regular film news VOICE of the CANADIAN MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY United Artists in Deal With NFB Gradwell L. Sears, vice-president of United Artists in charge of distribution, has completed a deal for the release of 12 two-reel subjects produced in Canada by the National Film Board under John Grierson, the Dominion’s film commissioner. They will be released under the general title, “World in Action.” Three of the shorts are ready and the rest are planned or in production. The three awaiting distribution are “Churchill’s Island,” “The Battle for Oil,” and “The (Continued on Page 2) ~ CBC-Victoria Deal Off Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, interested in Toronto’s Shea’s Victoria Theatre as an auxiliary station, called things off when the unsuitability of the building for those purposes was discovered. Shea’s Victoria, formerly a twoa-day vaudeville house, has been closed for years. It has brightened wp occasionally for community musicals, opera and foreignlanguage legit shows. TORONTO, JANUARY 21st, 1942 Trenton Latest Town to Pass By-Laws Against 12.05’s A wave of restrictive measures against midnight shows in Ontario towns began recently. Anti-12. 05! legislation has been placed before the councillors of six towns in the last little while. Two Councils passed it, two rejected it and two laid it aside until an agreement was reached with the theatre men. In the two towns which saw the passage of such by-laws, it is said that the councillors yielded to pressure from small groups to which belonged citizens of considerable local influence. The most recent decision against midnight shows was made in Trenton, at which place the shows were introduced over two years ago. An adjustment allowing six such shows per year is expected to become effective soon. Before that Oshawa yielded to the measure, which has already fallen into disfavor and is not expected to endure for long. Oshawa, like Trenton, has many soldiers and war workers whose off-hours do not coincide with times of the regular motion picture schedules. Oshawa has the General Motors plant and Trenton gets a great deal of patronage from the RCAF base there. Also (Continued on Page 3) MPDA Gives Clip Figures The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, under Co]. John A. Cooper, has prepared a summary of titles, dates and lengths of newsreel clips of war effort information added to the regular film news weeklies during the past year. This will enable the trade to know the actual footage run to assist in propaganda and morale-building. With the release of a summary of titles, dates and lengths of newsreel clips of war efforts addi weeklies during the last year, the MPDA has enabled the industry VAN SCHMUS PASSES AWAY to know the actual screening time given and footage run to assist in information, propaganda and morale-building. During the past year 26 clips, totalling 3,170 feet, were added to the usual news weeklies issued by 20th Century-Fox, Regal, EmpireUniversal and Paramount. ‘Ten government sponsored trailers were shown during the year, one of these being a Disney subject, with three of a zallice nature to follow soon. The prints were distributed gratis across the country by the film exchanges and shown by almost (Continued on Page 2) Now Tell Us— What's a Distrib? At a recent luncheon of the Associated Motion Picture Advertisers in New York, Harry Brandt, president of the Independent Theatre Owners Association, described an exhibitor thusly: “An exhibitor, contrary to any previously established thoughts on the matter, is a fellow who buys something he doesn’t want, from somebody who hasn’t got what he is trying to sell, and who doesn’t deliver what he hasn’t got, at . prices he can’t afford, plays them to audiences which don’t come—and winds up his year with a-big red mark on his ledger and a terrific winter in Florida!” "Prison Ship’ Film “Prison Ship,” a dramatic story of captured’ seamen aboard an Axis commerce raider, will be one of the major productions of the new year at 20th Century-Fox. This is Bryan Foy’s original, and he will produce the picture with one of the strongest casts ever assembled at Westwood and one of the industry’s top directors. Carey Back Harry Carey, after several months’ absence from the screen, will return for a featured role in Frank Lloyd’s new and modern version of ‘The Spoilers” for Universal. Carey has been playing a leading role in the Broadway stage hit, “Ah Wilderness.” SSS $2.00 Per Annum Midnite Shows on Rocky Road Rentals Under Wartime Prices Film rentals in Canada have definitely come under the Maximum Prices Regulations as of December ist, it was learned. The application of the regulations, which have up to now concerned admission and other price ceilings, comes under the direction of R. G. McMullen, recently appointed director of the Theatres and Film Section of the War Time Prices and Trade Board. The ruling on film rentals was slow in coming because film matters had not been allocated to a (Continued on Page 2) USA Sets Up New Film Board Control of the motion picture industry, as apart from censorship, is growing all the time. The American government, after extensive conferences with theatre men in. matters of war conduct and priorities, has turned to the matter of regulating the actual making of the motion picture. A Government Film Register, under the supervision of the Office of Co-Ordinator of Government Films, has been established, Its first move is to call for the regis (Continued on Page 3) Fleischer Quits The Fleischer Studios, Inc., announced this week the resignation of Dave Fleischer as director general of the organization. He will retain his stock interest in the company. The Fleischer Studios recently completed work on its second Technicolor feature cartoon. ‘Mr. Bug Goes to Town,” which has been highly praised at its advance showings to date and which will be released by Paramount in February. William G. Van Schmus, managing director of Radio City Music Hall and Centre Theatre, died in New York on Wednesday, January 14, after an illness of several months. He was president of Radio City Music Hall Corp. Mr. Van Schmus was 66 years old.